Angela K. Durden. Technology inventor protecting creator’s copyrights. Business writer, novelist, songwriter, and Citizen Journalist. What do all these endeavors have in common? Why, The Uncertainty Principle (TUP), that’s what. That is a principle with which I am not comfortable. I want things settled. Known. Efficiently working on my behalf to move my plans forward effectively. Comfortable with uncertainty or not, we still live with it and suffer or benefit from its effects. Take technology. More companies have suffered from TUP than have benefited. As an inventor of a technology based service (SaaS) protecting and defending IP rights, I’ve suffered so much from Tech Giants changing how they operate, as well as the amount of control they have over my access to folks online, that I’ve had to close my company, Notes2Bucks, and its SaaS called MyDigitalCatalog.com. As a writer of fiction and non-fiction, and a songwriter, I’ve suffered from Tech Giants theft of my IP property. As Continue reading The Uncertainty Principle: Part Deux→

Here’s a first-world perk for you. Snowball, Mouser, Princess, and Ginger. Brody, Big Boy, Darla Mae, and Clutch. And who can forget dearly departed Fluffy in the urn on the mantle next to her picture? Add a bottle of Fluffy Coke and, O. M. G. The possibilities increase exponentially. Just imagine the boost to the Coca-Cola Company’s bottom line. Why, they would not be able to keep up with demand if pet names were put on their bottles of Coke***. But it would go further. Overwhelming product demand would necessitate the company hire more in every department. Heck, I could see an entire department set up just for the roll-out of the new product line. So that would mean at least four of each at Corporate in Accounting and Order Processing. Then the local store marketing guys who build those awesome displays. Each area would have to employ at least two more of them Continue reading First-World Perk: Job Creation, Capitalist Style.→

I’d been noticing an interesting situation that continued to happen, but said nothing to anyone about it. What’s the situation? Building fires but getting no heat. Here’s how that was working: Customers request I prepare a quote for doing Very Important Project A for them. They get excited about my solutions. Love my body of work. Then…nothing. Follow-up after follow-up (me to them, them to me) and they keep talking about the thing. Even making appointments to continue with it, but…cancelling. What was going on? Is it me? Have I lost my credibility? My mojo? Talent? Abilities? Inspiration? Did I get lazy? Forget what customer service is all about? Were they hiring others and just didn’t have the heart to tell me? What? Frustrated, I finally began confessing my sad tale to others I knew. I thought they could tell me what I was doing wrong. You know, give me much-needed Continue reading Building fires. Getting no heat.→

Dear Newspaper Media Elite or, as you like to call yourself, Mainstream Media, The editorial pages were invented for a reason. That’s where opinion belongs. In other parts of the paper, give facts and let readers decide for themselves. There’s a reason you are losing readers and, by extension, money and ad revenue, and have been forced to artificially inflate distribution by giving away papers for little or nothing on the side of the road. You lost me in 1994 when inches-thick coupon sections became the main feature, and editorial content pushing a liberal agenda filled the rest along with socially conscious feel-good filler to round it out. In other words, nothing my brain could chew on. Nothing that made me think. But hey, I guess you’re like a gambling addict who borrows money from the loan shark and does the old Double Down Two-Step because you just feel in your bones that this Continue reading Doing the Double-Down Two Step with a loan shark’s money→

But when Intuition is ignored, therein lies the problem. Investors are ignoring Intuition. Read on. I had a Big Idea. I knew I would need Big Money to help roll out the Big Idea as a Solution for this Big Problem in the music business that was effecting everybody. As  one does in these situations, one finds information. One talks to those Who Know How It’s Done. But almost from the beginning of those conversations, Intuition was screaming at me again. This time it said, “There’s something major wrong in Investor Land. Tread carefully.” Man, was Intuition right about the Investor Game. The first rule is this: If you don’t understand it, don’t do it. That is quickly followed by the second rule: When the experts cannot explain it so you can understand, then call you the idiot for not understanding, don’t listen to them…and run, run fast and hard. Still, I had Continue reading Oh, Intuition! Thank you.→

Gun-toting terrorists and Politically Correct Doms and Dominatrices — both hereinafter referred to as Snowflakes — see incendiary headlines and badly researched articles generated by one of their own, the self-named Media Elite, and assume that what is there reflects the spine of most men and women of the United States and other free countries. That is, Snowflakes believe that when they speak of their feelings that those feelings matter more than the truth and logic we serve. They assume everyone who doesn’t agree with them will think they are brilliant and will roll over and do their bidding. They are wrong. We have feelings. We are not opposed to them. We enjoy them or hate them, in turn. But our feelings are not all-powerful. We know they are temporary and do not allow those feeling to guide us. In other words, feelings matter not when they: — ask truth to be ignored. — take away rights Continue reading Snowflakes of Terrorism→

“If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” From the first time I heard that saying, I hated it. It’s a truckload of bull crap. Look, the logic is circular. How can we learn if we cannot be around those smarter than ourselves while those who are smarter than us are being encouraged not to be in the room with those who know less than them? This saying is typical P.C. claptrap as it shuts out and shuts down the free flow of information and the challenge of assumptions. There are those who say, “Oh, no. This saying simply shows how humble these smart people are. Don’t you see they want to be around those with bigger brains than them because they acknowledge they don’t know everything?” Again, claptrap. First of all, how does anyone know they are the smartest in the room? Did everybody Continue reading Politically Correct Circular Logic→

This video clip compilation from Flight of the Navigator shows how I feel about the CAN-SPAM act. Many do comply with all the rules and regs, which entire compliance has done nothing but seriously hamper our ability to find new business. But many do not comply. Supposedly it is against the law to put someone on an email list without their not signing up first. Okay, there’s ways around that with a friendly message that says you aren’t wanting to bug them and hey, see how easy it is to unsubscribe at any time, among other qualifying criteria. Of course, if you’ve done business with them already, then it’s perfectly fine to send since you are communicating with a customer. All that is understood. But here’s the reality and the frustration. Reality One: Companies who are offshore (though you might not know it) do not have to comply with U.S. law, often making make their unsubscribe buttons invisible. Reality Two: People we Continue reading Compliance! Well, excuuuuuse me…→

This was originally posted on Linkedin, March 14, 2016.  Being new to the technology startup world in 2013, I knew I would need funding to bring out my big idea in the big way needed to make a difference to those who bring the world such a huge amount of joy: The creatives called songwriters. I also knew to get that funding I was not willing to sell my soul, max out credit cards and leave those companies hanging, or jump off the stable foundation of my life. After all, I’ve read WSJ, Forbes, and Inc. for decades. I’ve seen all the if-only  and woulda-coulda-shoulda stories and cautionary tales of woe about would-be captains of industry in a big, fat, screaming hurry. By the time I was needing funding, unicorns were all the rage, and if you hadn’t ripped your life apart, were able to show a massive user base, had a spreadsheet with projections going out Continue reading Anecdotal and Empirical Agree→

The Gee-Whiz Factor has turned you and me into slaves working for social media whose sole job is to sell advertising space for other companies who want to sell us stuff. Let me tell you a story to illustrate what the Facebooks and the Twitters and the Pinterests and so forth are doing — and why it is we are paying (in man hours) through the nose for their free service while we become the new slave class. The actors in our little film are: People Magazine (not for any reason other than it is popular, so please don’t sue me Time, Inc.) Angela (simply because I won’t sue myself for pointing out my stupidity.) Sandwich Board Company (you may infer companies that sell online ad space through social media portals.) “Friend” of Angela’s (a generic person, you may infer gender and other details of choice.) The scene: Angela stands on a street corner in a busy little hamlet. Continue reading The Gee-Whiz Factor, or the Great Internet Tech Algorithm Conspiracy→

  This is a dark chipmunk-tunnel* subject I won’t go down now in detail. However, I’ve been saying it for over two years: I would gladly pay a reasonable monthly fee to be able to use the Facebooks and Twitters and Meetup.coms in ways that made sense for me without my efforts being punished, and without me having to chase the damn algorithm changes around in the dark. It seems Baratunde Thurston agrees with me. The link is to one of his columns in FastCompany. As anyone who has ever tried to sell something can tell you: The making of a thing is not the hard part. It’s the selling of it that can kill you. The best book. The best song. The best gadget. The best car. Bike. Toothbrush. Perfume. Blanket. Rug. Socks. Movie. It doesn’t matter what it is, if nobody ever finds out about it, then the only customer will be nobody. Click Here Continue reading Finding Eyes and Ears, or the rise of Social Media Titans’ new slave class→